Obama invokes Gandhi, Mandela in support for second term

NEW YORK: US President Barack Obama invoked the legacies of his heroes Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela as he sought support from voters for a second term, saying he too needs time to fulfil his promise of bringing a "real change" to America just as the two legendary leaders did.

"The change we fought for in 2008 hasn't always happened as fast as we would have liked... real change, big change, is always hard," Obama said at a fundraiser held here.

"Around the world -- Gandhi, Nelson Mandela -- what they did was hard. It takes time. It takes more than a single term. It takes more than a single President. It takes more than a single individual," he said.

From the civil rights movement to winning the vote for women, bringing about "real and big change" in the world has been hard and has taken time, the President said.

Going by the tough times America has seen in the recent years, change may appear impossible to achieve, he said.

However, change is possible through "ordinary citizens who keep believing, who are committed to fighting and pushing and inching this country closer and closer to our highest ideals," Obama added.

Obama said while he is "not a perfect man and I will not be a perfect President," he had promised America when he won the election in 2008 that "I would always tell you what I believed, I would always tell you where I stood, and that I would wake up every single day thinking about you and fight for you as hard as I could, and do everything possible to make sure that this country that has given me and Michelle and our kids so much, that that country is there for everybody.

"And you know what? I have kept that promise." Seeking support for a second term ahead of the November Presidential polls, Obama said change will come to America if its citizens are willing to work with him and help him remove obstacles the country faces.

"If you're willing to work with me, and push through the obstacles, and push through the setbacks, and get back up when we get knocked down, and if you're willing to hold that vision that we have for America in your hearts, then I promise you change will come.

"And if you're willing to work as hard as you did in the last election in this election, then we will finish what we started, and remind the world just why it is that America is the greatest nation on earth," he said.